| 402 chairman pro tem. on the 5th instant. They have not yet elected their speaker or clerk. The Senate can do nothing of consequence until the House is organized; neither can the President's Message until then be received. We design taking a paper and forwarding it to you.
"Your brethren in the bonds of the everlasting covenant,
"Joseph Smith, Jr.,
"Elias Higbee."
-Millennial Star, vol. 17, pp. 471, 472.
During the latter part of December President Smith made a visit to Philadelphia, and Elders Higbee and Rockwell followed him by carriage, leaving Elder Rigdon in Washington, sick, attended by Doctor Foster.
The 14th of January, 1840, Elder Rigdon and Doctor Foster arrived at Philadelphia. Until about the last of the month they visited and preached in different places, when Joseph Smith, Elias Higbee, Doctor Foster, and O. P. Rockwell returned to Washington, leaving Elder Rigdon sick in Philadelphia.
President Smith had interviews with President Van Buren, also with John C. Calhoun, of which he writes as follows:-
"During my stay I had an interview with Martin Van Buren, the President, who treated me very insolently, and it was with great reluctance he listened to our message, which when he had heard, he said, 'Gentlemen, YOUR CAUSE IS JUST, BUT I CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU;' and, 'If I take up for you, I shall lose the vote of Missouri.' His whole course went to show that he was an officeseeker, that self-aggrandizement was his ruling passion, and that justice and righteousness were no part of his composition. I found him such a man as I could not conscientiously support at the head of our noble republic. I also had an interview with Mr. John C. Calhoun, whose conduct towards me very ill became his station. I became satisfied there was little use for me to tarry to press the just claims of the saints on the protection of the President or Congress, and staid [stayed] but a few days, taking passage in company with Rockwell and Foster on the railroad
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